June 2008 vacation - part 4

Saturday we had hoped to start our day with some trail hiking in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. There is a lot of gorgeous natural wonders in the Gatlinburg area. However, the weather wasn't so co-operative. So, after some driving about, we moved on to our back-up plan: Ripley's Aquarium.

This downtown Gatlinburg attraction was a lot of fun and a great way to spend a rainy day inside. Everything is centered around this moving walkway that takes you through a tank filled with sharks and other exotic fish. There are dive shows in the stingray tank and the tropical fish tank. There are places where you can actual touch rays and horse-shoe crabs. We really enjoyed ourselves there.

Before a final dinner out at Alamo Steakhouse (which serves an awesome prime rib, by the way), we went to the plaza right across from our hotel for a little last minute shopping. There, we found a wonderful shop that makes and jars their own jams, jellies and preserves. We brought home with us some pints of strawberry preserves, apple butter and pumpkin butter.

One other thing - you'll notice when you visit this area of Tennessee that there are pancake restaurants every where you turn. No, seriously. It might be hard to find a Starbucks or two in the twenty mile area, but pancake places aren't a problem at all. They love 'em, and they do them well. We checked out of our hotel this morning at 7:15am, crossed the street and had a great breakfast at Flapjacks. Good food, large portions and quick service. We had eaten and were ready for hitting the road by 8am. Gotta love that.

I strongly endorse the Gatlinburg/Pidgeon Forge areas of Tennessee as a vacation spot, especially if you are looking for a variety of fun and adventure. I can tell you for a fact we plan to go back again some time in the coming years as it is a perfect long weekend trip for us.

June 2008 vacation - part 1

Where have I been since the middle of last week? Tennessee!

Two weeks ago, my wife and I were looking at our calendars and trying to find a time we could take time off from work this summer for some family vacation. What we decided we could do was a long weekend (Wednesday night depart and Sunday return home) - right around Father's Day weekend. Given the price of gasoline, we wanted something relatively close but still somewhere we hadn't gone as a family.

What we decided upon was Gatlinburg, TN. Nestled just on the other side of the North Carolina border, in the heart of the mountains, it was a perfect fit. Just three hours drive (150 miles), we could get there on Wednesday after work and have three full days of fun before coming home again. So, we did just that - left work on Wednesday and got to the Brookside Resort around 9:30pm.

Our room was nicely sized for our family of three - two queensized beds, a little fridge and bar area, and a back porch that overlooked a running brook (thus the name of the place). It was very nice. The place had two pools as well.

Thursday morning we took a hike down the hill into the heart of the tourist center of town. Gatlinburg is pretty much a huge tourist town, with lots of places to eat, things to do, etc. Our morning hike took us down and around a couple miles so we could get a bearing of what was there and what to do for the rest of our time. After that, we took a trolley-bus back to the hotel and got the car. Since the weather was looking stormy, we decided to dive the five plus miles over to Pidgeon Forge, to check out what was there and to do some shopping.

Pidgeon Forge, if you don't know, is also a huge tourist town. It mostly sprung up around Dollywood - the amusement park funded by Dolly Parton and her investors. There is also Splash Country, Dolly's water park, and of course the Dixie Stampede, a dinner show also connected to Dolly.

While we ate lunch, we called the Dixie Stampede and made dinner reservations for Thursday night at 8pm. Figured it would perfect to go on a non-weekend night. We got in just fine. After our lunch, we shopped at one of the outlet malls. I got some things to wear to my 25th reunion picnic next month. We then drove back to the hotel, showered and prepared for our evening out.